So a few months after the introduction of the on screen modifier buttons am I using them? No.
They are hidden away, in the wrong place, take too long and are too fiddly to get to.
They need to be in a floating panel that can be positioned wherever is most ergonomic for the user. The very nature on an iPad means it’s being supported and gripped differently all the time. The UI needs to work with this rather than being rigid like a desktop app.
Make no mistake... this is incredible software. But some small UI tweeks could help users unlock that power by making it much more efficient to use.

Just had a random nosey in the tutorials videos, when I noticed one for On Screen Modifiers. I'm man enough to admit I let out a little squeal of excitement!
It's an interesting implementation. Contextual modifiers for the appropriate tools, rather than generic ones replicating a keyboard.
I've not played around with them much yet, but the main modifiers I wanted are there... set source when cloning, and a quick switch to the node tool from the pen tool. Also, 'ignore snapping' to enable independent control of a node's two handles.
I haven't experimented to see if these modifiers can be triggered from a hardware keyboard yet, but this is a huge step forward for efficiency in Affinity Photo for iPad.
I am really excited for the future of Affinity Photo and photo retouching on the iPad.

100% agree with this too.
The ability to manipulate the handles directly from the pen tool and the ability to manipulate each handle independently is a must.
I'm glad this is being worked on, can't wait to see what's coming in future updates.
Thanks.

Hi everyone,
The reception to Affinity Photo for iPad has quite rightly been phenomenal. It is, at last, a sign that the the iPad is getting the pro software that the hardware is capable of running.
The features I would most like to see going forward are a floating modifier key panel (like AstroPad has), and external keyboard support.
Modifier keys would allow for more accurate and efficient use of the clone tool (alt click to sample, click to clone) when manually cloning tricky areas that the automated methods cannot deal with.
They would also allow better access to manipulating the handles of vector paths rather than constantly switching between the Pen and Node tools (on that subject, we need the ability to manipulate the two handles independently which I think is vital for accurate paths).
A little spacebar key would let the user pan around the image without lifting the Apple Pencil off the screen... I could go on and on.
Basically they would allow one tool to have multiple states without needing to switch tools or lose the accuracy of the Pencil by requiring a clumsy finger gesture.
External keyboard support would be fantastic for quickly switching between tools, deselecting, re-selecting, quick access to the Fade command etc.
Increased efficiency for power users basically.
In summary, I'd love to be able to complete those finickity and tedious retouching tasks that we all have to do as quickly and painlessly as possible.
Thank you again for a really astonishing piece of software. I can't wait to see how it develops.